Robert Goetz mops the terminal floor at MidAmerica Airport.

'New' Pan Am will fly passengers at MidAmerica Airport

By Robert Goodrich of the Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS -- Airline service from MidAmerica Airport is scheduled to
start Aug. 16, with two daily flights to Chicago and one to
Orlando.

Passengers will board Boeing 727-200s with the blue and
white logo of Pan American Airways, the resurrected airline
that once spanned the globe.

Details are to be announced by government and industry
officials at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at the MidAmerica terminal at
the north edge of Mascoutah.

MidAmerica opened two years ago. Critics have called it a
boondoggle, taunting St. Clair County officials for spending
$220 million on an empty terminal and little-used airport
with a 10,000-foot runway.

But County Board Chairman John Baricevic and other baclers
never wavered. They insisted that air traffic growth would
eventually insure success.

MidAmerica is situated off Interstate 64, 24 miles from
downtown St. Louis. A proposed MetroLink extension would
link it to Lambert Field.

Parking at MidAmerica is free, and within easy walking
distance from the terminal's four gates.

Baricevic has said the county could wait as long as five
years for an airline commitment. But he and others have
speculated that use of MidAmerica could grow quickly, once
an airline committed to use it.

Pan Am was founded in the late 1920s by Juan Trippe. It
became the premier airline for world travel with its famous
Pan Am Clippers. It was the first to fly Boeing 747s.

But after federal deregulation, the company fell on hard
times and sank into bankruptcy after the terrorist bombing
over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. Delta Airlines bought
parts of the airline and agreed to hire 6,000 of its
employees.

In June 1998, the Pan Am name and remaining assets were
bought by Guilford Transportation Industries, based in New
Hampshire. Its headquarters moved from Fort Lauderdale,
Fla., to Portsmouth, N.H.

Pan Am received federal approval last September to resume
regular passenger service, and began flights between New
Hampshire and Florida.

A month later, St. Clair County officials confirmed that Pan
Am's top executives had visited MidAmerica and liked what
they saw.

Pan Am then had seven Boeing 727s. Two were used for
charters, three were being overhauled and two were used for
daily flights between Portsmouth (45 minutes from Boston)
and Sanford, Fla. (near Orlando).

The airline announced in October that it was starting daily
service between Portsmouth and the Chicago-Gary Airport at
Gary, Ind. (a half hour's drive from the Chicago Loop).

It also has flights to Pittsburgh, Pa., and Bangor, Maine.

The revived airline's specialty is flights to secondary
airports near urban areas. Its aim is to help customers
avoid overcrowding and delays.

Pan Am's fares out of MidAmerica have not been disclosed, but up
to 50 St. Louis area travel agents are being invited to
Tuesday's press conference to start booking flights.

The airline is expected to announce two daily flights from
MidAmerica to Chicago-Gary, one in the morning and one in
the afternoon, with two return flights, one in the morning
and one in the afternoon.

It is also expected to announce one daily flight from MidAmerica
to Sanford, Fla. The Sanford airport is about equal
distance from Orlando, Daytona Beach and the Kennedy Space
Center.

MidAmerica's 10,000-foot runway can handle any airliner or
military aircraft currently flying.

It operates under a joint-use agreement with Scott Air Force
Base next door and its runway is connected to Scott's 8,000-
foot runway by a mile-long taxiway.

The two airfields are controlled by the same control tower,
and the two runways can be used interchangeably as needed by
civilian and military aircraft.

A full-loaded Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker from Scott's new
refueling wing, for example, needs MidAmerica's longer
runway to take off.